00:36DUBAI — Crypto exchange OKX has gone live in the UAE offering a dirham -denominated order book and integration with a local bank as it looks to attract retail clients and entice institutions that may have been reluctant to participate in the crypto market.
"We have two targets – to be the retail app of choice and market and to start converting institutions in the UAE to enter the space," Mahasneh said in an interview."The return on investment is going to come from our ability to convert traditional institutions." The combination of giving access to a regulated derivatives product, local-currency product and local banking channel could give entities representing global institutions, which have so far been sitting on the sidelines, comfort to trade, Mahasneh said. The company's banking partner is
OKX is the first major exchange to go live with the combination of"an AED banking integration and an AED order book," retail and institutional availability, and the first to offer regulated derivatives in the market, Mahasneh said. It will offer 280 tokens and 400 trading pairs in the region., Crypto.com's retail app is now available in the UAE, the company told CoinDesk in an email.